Calories goal

adrianahealy1
Posts: 2 Member
I weight 110lbs. Is it crazy to set a 1200 calories goal per day? I did but I am having trouble not going over the set goal per day even with exercises.
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Replies
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What are you trying to accomplish: Weight maintenance? Loss? Gsin?
How tall are you? How active are you? How old are you? We need a little context here!
1200 was way too low for me as an active, 150-some pound 5'5" 59-year-old, and I could lose weight at a higher intake. But that's me, not you.6 -
Not sure of the rest of your stats, or your goals, but 1200 plus 200 a day in exercise calories had me losing 1lbs every 6 weeks at 110lbs, 5'1 and 55yo.
Completely appropriate for my stats and goals.
Yours may be very different and you may need to revisit you MFP goal and adjust to losing .5lbs a week for an appropriate loss, or to maintaining.
Exercise calories should be eaten. I used the MFP cals and ate back 100%. You may need to adjust your exercise cals so you are losing at the rate you entered in MFP.
Do make sure you are weighing all your foods and using the correct entries. (This can take time)
If you are still hungry once your calorie goal, logging, and exercise cals are on point, try adjusting your macros.
Different macros have a different effect on a person's satiety. I do well with a good protein level (1g protein per lbs weight) others; fats or carbs.
More info will get you a more personalized response.
Cheers, h.6 -
What are you trying to accomplish: Weight maintenance? Loss? Gsin?
How tall are you? How active are you? How old are you? We need a little context here!
1200 was way too low for me as an active, 150-some pound 5'5" 59-year-old, and I could lose weight at a higher intake. But that's me, not you.
I am 35 years old my height is 5’2” I try to exercise everyday for 30-45min, but not always get to it. I want to get down to 104/5 pounds.1 -
Given your stats, 1200-1300 is probably as good as it gets for losing .5 a week, or less, to be honest.
Adding in more exercise, if possible, will give you a bit more to eat.
Another thing to think of is can you maintain the lower weight comfortably, or is it going to be a life of restriction?
Check your maintenance calories on MFP and compare them against your 'comfortable' calorie intake.
You could just switch to your 104/5 cal goal now and slowly coast into maintenance.
Even though you only have a few lbs to go, those few less calories may not be worth it. If that is the case, think of doing a recomp.
This would mean you would re-sculpting your body by conditioning/weight training, but maintaining the weight you are at.
It would mean dedicating more time to exercise, but is well worth it.
Cheers, h.9 -
^^ I agree with middlehaitch, as usual.
You really want to be losing at a slow rate, at most, with so little to lose.2 -
Huh...
I'm 36 y/o, 114 lbs, 4'11" () and would also like to lose a bit more. I still have some fat, mainly around my stomach... and an annoying little bit in my thighs and arms.
But it does get tiring to keep cal so low. And it's hard not to be in a bit of a hurry, isn't it?
Especially since my plan is to up my tdee as much as I can once I've reached maintenance (via regular activity and exercise, which I've come to love), so I can consume as many calories as possible. I have quite the appetite, hehe
But for now, it seems that I have to tighten up my calorie intake if I want to lose these darned last pounds u.u. It does get tiring. I'm doing some strength training and cardio. Hang in there!
The answers you received helped me do some thinking as well3 -
OP my stats are v similar to yours, im 5ft1 and currently 114lbs. Been eating circa 1800 cals per day and loosing 0.5-0.7lbs per week.
Everyone is different. Personally, i’d say 1200 is pretty low even for short and light females like us, expecially if you exercise...
I have an office job 9-5 but walk 14k steps per day for lunch breaks, strength train 4 times and run 4 time per week.
1800 leaves me a bit hungry really!0 -
RunForPizza88 wrote: »OP my stats are v similar to yours, im 5ft1 and currently 114lbs. Been eating circa 1800 cals per day and loosing 0.5-0.7lbs per week.
Everyone is different. Personally, i’d say 1200 is pretty low even for short and light females like us, expecially if you exercise...
I have an office job 9-5 but walk 14k steps per day for lunch breaks, strength train 4 times and run 4 time per week.
1800 leaves me a bit hungry really!
Wow, even with lots of extra activity I would definitely not lose at 1800 cals. My metabolism is pretty rubbish it seems. I did not luck out on that one...
Can I ask how old are you? I'm 36 = ). I'm also not the OP, but I have similar stats and struggles.0 -
Just for context... what one person may be logging/treating as 1500 calories could be the same as what someone else is logging/treating as 1800 which could the be same as someone else's 1200.
Try not to compare your calorie intake to others' intake. Be consistent with your intake, whatever it is, then adjust based on YOUR results, not on other people's experiences.9 -
RunForPizza88 wrote: »OP my stats are v similar to yours, im 5ft1 and currently 114lbs. Been eating circa 1800 cals per day and loosing 0.5-0.7lbs per week.
Everyone is different. Personally, i’d say 1200 is pretty low even for short and light females like us, expecially if you exercise...
I have an office job 9-5 but walk 14k steps per day for lunch breaks, strength train 4 times and run 4 time per week.
1800 leaves me a bit hungry really!
Wow, even with lots of extra activity I would definitely not lose at 1800 cals. My metabolism is pretty rubbish it seems. I did not luck out on that one...
Can I ask how old are you? I'm 36 = ). I'm also not the OP, but I have similar stats and struggles.
Hey Sophia 8) I’m 30. Like you I used to use the old phrases ‘im small so i cant loose weight’ or ‘i must have a slow metabolism’.
My personal opinion is that many people dont loose weight cause they don’t remain consistant, they stick with it for like a week and then when they don’t drop as much on the scale ss they hoped (due to unrealistic expectations) they give up and begin overeating again. Well, that used to me be.
I ‘tried’ for 1 year constantly saying I was ‘on a diet’ which meant i was starving myself some days and then getting so hungry I’d say screw it and have a blow out undoing any calorie deficit I’d made for the week. And the cycle continued.
I’ve now realised the key is consistancy, weighting and logging accuratly and having a very moderate daily deficit (200-250 cals). It’s taken me 5 months to loose 14lbs (so it’s not an over night process!) BUT I am now at my goal weight and starting to focus on eating at maintanince and increasing strength training to hopefully create my goal physique!5 -
RunForPizza88 wrote: »RunForPizza88 wrote: »OP my stats are v similar to yours, im 5ft1 and currently 114lbs. Been eating circa 1800 cals per day and loosing 0.5-0.7lbs per week.
Everyone is different. Personally, i’d say 1200 is pretty low even for short and light females like us, expecially if you exercise...
I have an office job 9-5 but walk 14k steps per day for lunch breaks, strength train 4 times and run 4 time per week.
1800 leaves me a bit hungry really!
Wow, even with lots of extra activity I would definitely not lose at 1800 cals. My metabolism is pretty rubbish it seems. I did not luck out on that one...
Can I ask how old are you? I'm 36 = ). I'm also not the OP, but I have similar stats and struggles.
Hey Sophia 8) I’m 30. Like you I used to use the old phrases ‘im small so i cant loose weight’ or ‘i must have a slow metabolism’.
My personal opinion is that many people dont loose weight cause they don’t remain consistant, they stick with it for like a week and then when they don’t drop as much on the scale ss they hoped (due to unrealistic expectations) they give up and begin overeating again. Well, that used to me be.
I ‘tried’ for 1 year constantly saying I was ‘on a diet’ which meant i was starving myself some days and then getting so hungry I’d say screw it and have a blow out undoing any calorie deficit I’d made for the week. And the cycle continued.
I’ve now realised the key is consistancy, weighting and logging accuratly and having a very moderate daily deficit (200-250 cals). It’s taken me 5 months to loose 14lbs (so it’s not an over night process!) BUT I am now at my goal weight and starting to focus on eating at maintanince and increasing strength training to hopefully create my goal physique!
Cool, thanks for replying.
I think that because I'm losing the last 10 pounds (god all mightyyyy), I really have to make my peace with it being a slow process, achieved with a small deficit, consistency and patience.
Some things you said about over-restricting and then blowing it all to heck in a day or two (swiping a week's worth of deficit!) did ring true to me, not gonna lie. I started losing weight in January and was fine for a while, but the last 2-3 months have been the main struggle... and yeah, there has been some binging/restricting, to be honest.
I struggle enough restricting cals as it is at this point, so my goal now I'm thinking is to find the smallest deficit I can work with. One that's juuuust shy of maintaining... one that'll keep me losing that final nudge. (To be clear, by the smallest deficit I mean the highest calorie intake.) That way I can get better workouts in, which is much more motivating for me at this time than focusing on food intake.2 -
RunForPizza88 wrote: »RunForPizza88 wrote: »OP my stats are v similar to yours, im 5ft1 and currently 114lbs. Been eating circa 1800 cals per day and loosing 0.5-0.7lbs per week.
Everyone is different. Personally, i’d say 1200 is pretty low even for short and light females like us, expecially if you exercise...
I have an office job 9-5 but walk 14k steps per day for lunch breaks, strength train 4 times and run 4 time per week.
1800 leaves me a bit hungry really!
Wow, even with lots of extra activity I would definitely not lose at 1800 cals. My metabolism is pretty rubbish it seems. I did not luck out on that one...
Can I ask how old are you? I'm 36 = ). I'm also not the OP, but I have similar stats and struggles.
Hey Sophia 8) I’m 30. Like you I used to use the old phrases ‘im small so i cant loose weight’ or ‘i must have a slow metabolism’.
My personal opinion is that many people dont loose weight cause they don’t remain consistant, they stick with it for like a week and then when they don’t drop as much on the scale ss they hoped (due to unrealistic expectations) they give up and begin overeating again. Well, that used to me be.
I ‘tried’ for 1 year constantly saying I was ‘on a diet’ which meant i was starving myself some days and then getting so hungry I’d say screw it and have a blow out undoing any calorie deficit I’d made for the week. And the cycle continued.
I’ve now realised the key is consistancy, weighting and logging accuratly and having a very moderate daily deficit (200-250 cals). It’s taken me 5 months to loose 14lbs (so it’s not an over night process!) BUT I am now at my goal weight and starting to focus on eating at maintanince and increasing strength training to hopefully create my goal physique!
Cool, thanks for replying.
I think that because I'm losing the last 10 pounds (god all mightyyyy), I really have to make my peace with it being a slow process, achieved with a small deficit, consistency and patience.
Some things you said about over-restricting and then blowing it all to heck in a day or two (swiping a week's worth of deficit!) did ring true to me, not gonna lie. I started losing weight in January and was fine for a while, but the last 2-3 months have been the main struggle... and yeah, there has been some binging/restricting, to be honest.
I struggle enough restricting cals as it is at this point, so my goal now I'm thinking is to find the smallest deficit I can work with. One that's juuuust shy of maintaining... one that'll keep me losing that final nudge. (To be clear, by the smallest deficit I mean the highest calorie intake.) That way I can get better workouts in, which is much more motivating for me at this time than focusing on food intake.
Well done girl you sound like you are on the right track now and I’ll try to not derail OPs thread anymore with too long of a response so hit me up with a message or whatever any time if you want any more advice or anything.
Just remember it is slowwww, 5 months for me to loose 14lbs and that was with being nearly perfect every day.
I would highly recommend that once you have lost a few more lbs you look into doing recomp, that’s gonna do wonders for giving you the shape of body I am assuming you probably desire, more than than just loosing more lbs and being ‘skinny fat’.
The best bit about this process for me has been freeing myself from the guilt, no more guilt when I eat pizza, no more ice cream guilt, no more guilt if I miss one workout or spend the day on the sofa relaxing. One day or one large meal or one lazy day is a drop in the ocean.
You can do this!^___^
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